Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not heat my dinner plate?

236 replies

Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 20:27

Just a silly one really..

My MIL has been coming to us once a week for a little while now. Every single time we have dinner whether we serve up or she does, even if we get a takeaway she always asks if I want my plate heated? Either with boiling water or in the oven if it’s being used. I just think it’s strange as I’d never do that on a random Tuesday night dinner or anything but she does it all the time 🤣
Also weird that DH never asks or cares for his plate heated any other time but he’ll always have it when she’s here.

Is this a thing? Am I the strange one 🤣
YABU- you religiously heat your plate
YANBU- never heat your plate

OP posts:
DontTouchRoach · 13/06/2025 20:51

I don’t think it’s weird to heat or not to heat. It’s just a personal preference. For some reason DP and I warm plates for fish and chips but nothing else, no idea why!

Hankunamatata · 13/06/2025 20:51

My family were never plate heaters but mil converted me. It makes the food nicer for longer. I always heat my plates in microwave for a couple of minutes. You can really tell in restaurants where plates arnt heated, food goes cold so quickly

Duckduck2 · 13/06/2025 20:51

This thread has been such an eye opener! I had no idea people warmed plates at home, honestly not heard of it before. Parents or grandparents never did it.
Just thought it was a restaurant thing with their big lights that keep the plates warm because they are serving so many different items at a time.
Currently eating dinner and can’t stop looking at my cold plate 😂

notmyrealnameok · 13/06/2025 20:52

I think it’s generational. My parents do it and comment on the food being cold if I don’t (even though you can see the steam coming off the food)

CurlyhairedAssassin · 13/06/2025 20:52

Tinkerbellflowers · 13/06/2025 20:48

I've heated my plate my whole adult life, so not sure if it's an age thing. Nothing worse that hot food on a cold plate. Restaurants mostly always serve on hot plates.

Yep, I'd be really put off somewhere who brought me supposedly hot food on a totally cold plate which was already lukewarm by the time I was eating it.

Doggielovecharlotte · 13/06/2025 20:53

I heat for a roast

if she asked you the way you detail in your post she’d get it over her head!

pimplebum · 13/06/2025 20:54

We have a whole part of our oven that is warming oven! , I had no idea what it was until mil came to stay and fired it up

never used it since

Original poster
Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 20:54

Duckduck2 · 13/06/2025 20:51

This thread has been such an eye opener! I had no idea people warmed plates at home, honestly not heard of it before. Parents or grandparents never did it.
Just thought it was a restaurant thing with their big lights that keep the plates warm because they are serving so many different items at a time.
Currently eating dinner and can’t stop looking at my cold plate 😂

The first time she was here and asked I was actually so surprised it was a thing 🤣

I can’t say I’ve ever noticed my food going cold and thought anything of it!

Was fully expecting to be told every other adult does this and I’ve just never caught on so I’m glad it’s mixed 🤣

OP posts:
CurlyhairedAssassin · 13/06/2025 20:54

notmyrealnameok · 13/06/2025 20:52

I think it’s generational. My parents do it and comment on the food being cold if I don’t (even though you can see the steam coming off the food)

There might be steam but the food is already cooling down unevenly. Some parts wlll still be roasting hot (eg a roast potato, enough to burn your mouth), and the gravy and some part of the veg may be almost cold within a few minutes especially at the edges.

A restaurant wouldn't do that.

Doggielovecharlotte · 13/06/2025 20:55

DontTouchRoach · 13/06/2025 20:51

I don’t think it’s weird to heat or not to heat. It’s just a personal preference. For some reason DP and I warm plates for fish and chips but nothing else, no idea why!

Yes sorry - roasts and fish and chips

this is just one of those mad things with no explanation

like the thread where someone didn’t have “their side of the bed” what!!! 🧟‍♀️

OtherS · 13/06/2025 20:56

My mother did, she was very confused if she ever caught me eating hot food off a cold plate. I do if I'm using the oven, but I don't bother otherwise. I should do though as I'm a ridiculously slow eater so my food's always stone cold by the time I'm halfway through. I used to use the hob for 20 seconds or so, but I once forgot to take the plate off in time and it exploded. So I don't do that anymore! I'm not fussed enough to use boiling water or buy a special gadget, but I would love a warming drawer if I had room.

Betsylee · 13/06/2025 20:57

I think it's definitely an older generation thing to do. We have friends who do it and then my husband wants to hear theirs when they eat at ours! All a bit of a faff tbh, can understand it if the middle of winter and house is freezing so maybe that's where it's originated from.

Doggielovecharlotte · 13/06/2025 20:58

DumbbellIdiot · 13/06/2025 20:31

My MIL is obsessed with heating plates. Nothing cooler than volcanic will do for her. Last Xmas she offered to heat the plates at her house and bring them to us as mine were clearly not hot enough for her last Xmas. Utterly batshit idea.

OMG this is so funny…I’m imagining her with asbestos hands now bringing the plates in

Ducksurprise · 13/06/2025 20:59

It is something that irrationally annoys me. My MIL is the same, I do it (and in all other ways I love her) but it annoys me 😂

Actually she also puts her toast in a balanced triangle to cool down before buttering the bread, so the toast is cold. This equally annoys me 😂

Original poster
Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 21:01

Also just to add, she doesn’t ask me to heat her plate for her but she’ll do her own and ask if I want mine done too, not bashing her in any way!

She probably thinks I’m as weird for not as I think she is for it 🤣

OP posts:
Original poster
Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 21:02

Ducksurprise · 13/06/2025 20:59

It is something that irrationally annoys me. My MIL is the same, I do it (and in all other ways I love her) but it annoys me 😂

Actually she also puts her toast in a balanced triangle to cool down before buttering the bread, so the toast is cold. This equally annoys me 😂

My mum does this with her toast!

The amount of times I’ve gone over at like 2pm and found a toast castle and she just says oh I forgot about that I was waiting for it to cool down 🤣

OP posts:
Flamingfeline · 13/06/2025 21:02

My husband always does which used to annoy me but now I go along with it (26 years later). It’s unnecessary however in our house. Every last crumb is finished and the plates licked clean within moments of them landing in front of us. My mum (now 94) has never done it. Neither do my adult daughters.

BeKindOpalBear · 13/06/2025 21:03

I pop our plates in the microwave for 1 minute, we're in our 60s but only started doing this around 5 years ago, I also developed a dislike of Luke warm food, no idea why!

NCNC2 · 13/06/2025 21:06

This reminds me of my mum who insisted stuff was “cold” - she would reject soup if it wasn’t bubbling like lava
I don’t eat slow enough for food to go cold so I don’t bother heating plates!

Icanttakethisanymore · 13/06/2025 21:10

Hate a hot plate. I need the plate to cool my food down so I can scoff it faster.

TakeMe2Insanity · 13/06/2025 21:10

Dangermoo · 13/06/2025 20:30

It's a generation thing.

This.

In previous times it was harder to reheat food, houses were colder no central heating so possibly in winter a plate would be freezing and then warm food on it would go cold quicker especially if sat waiting around.

My mum never heated plates but she when she first moved to the UK in the late 60s apparently everyone would do it and she found it very strange.

Original poster
Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 21:10

NCNC2 · 13/06/2025 21:06

This reminds me of my mum who insisted stuff was “cold” - she would reject soup if it wasn’t bubbling like lava
I don’t eat slow enough for food to go cold so I don’t bother heating plates!

My dad is like this with his tea, they got a boiling water tap installed but he won’t use it for tea as it’s ’not hot enough’ so still uses the kettle anyway 🤣

OP posts:
DrCoconut · 13/06/2025 21:10

I was always taught to let my food cool down. I think my mum was afraid of me burning my mouth and it was also seen as greedy to be unable to wait. So plate warming wasn't a thing as it made cooling down take longer. I still don't have food lava hot. Or drinks.

wwyd2021medicine · 13/06/2025 21:17

I only heat plates for a take away as it's already begun to cool on the way home

Livingonbananabread · 13/06/2025 21:19

DH always warms the plates - he’s late 40s and has done it as long as I’ve known him, so since his 20s. I didn’t grow up with it and never bother for myself, but do now for family meals as otherwise he’d go and warm the plates while the meal I’ve just cooked goes cold! Just in the oven on the lowest setting, or as it cools if it’s been on.